Gray was right – it wasn't weird.

The next morning, they all woke up in a tangle of legs and sheets, sleepy smiles leading to soft kisses. Breakfast was friendly as usual, but Sting noticed little touches now – Natsu's hand brushing his hip as he leaned across Sting to grab the cereal, Gray resting his ankle against Rogue's at the table.

That night they all watched a movie together, and when they sat down on the couch, Natsu immediately grabbed a cushion and flopped down in Sting's lap, while Gray wrapped an arm around Rogue without a second thought. Sting was about to say something when he realized that he didn't mind at all. Instead he started running his fingers through Natsu's hair, which earned him something that sounded like a purr.

After the movie, Gray looked at the two of them. "You coming to bed?" he asked, face open and unreserved. Sting looked at Rogue, who shrugged, then let Gray pull him up and followed him to the bedroom.

"You okay?" Natsu asked, sitting up and giving Sting a look he'd never seen before. He blinked, startled when Natsu reached up and brushed a hand across his cheek. "C'mere." Natsu tugged Sting in for a kiss, soft and gentle, nothing like yesterday's desperate passion. Sting melted into it, running a hand through Natsu's hair and pulling him closer.

"If you two are done making out, get your asses in here," Gray called, leaning out of the bedroom with his toothbrush between his teeth. "You can kiss in bed."

Nobody slept for several hours, instead spending the time exploring each other's bodies in several creative and very satisfying ways. Sting came more times that night than he ever had before, and he learned how each of them could make him feel incredible, and how he could return the favor.

He already knew Rogue well – knew that he enjoyed having his neck kissed, liked his hair being touched, liked being opened slowly and, depending on his mood, liked soft thrusts or being slammed into the mattress. Rogue liked to take others too, usually gently, while biting or kissing or slowly teasing.

Natsu was easy to read. He liked being bitten, pinned down, scratched, restrained; being fingered hard or fucked harder. He gave as good as he got, and was happy to rough up Sting if he was in the mood, which was often. Natsu talked a lot when they fucked, would whisper things in Sting's ear, tell him how good he felt or how well he took it.

Gray was more reserved, but loved to dominate Sting – tell him what to do, how to move, when to come. He liked having his nipples bitten and his hair pulled, but mostly he liked Sting on his back with his legs spread saying please and fuck and harder.

They slept in the same bed every night after that.

Eventually, Sting and Rogue moved their toiletries into the ensuite bathroom – it was bigger than the one they'd been using anyway, and it was easier if they were all sleeping in the same bed. Clothing started to migrate over until it just made sense to move the dresser. The second bedroom slowly transformed into an office, bed untouched except for storage.

Two weeks after the new arrangement, Sting got up to use the washroom at night and heard the TV. He peeked out into the living room and saw Gray on the couch, half-asleep and watching a documentary on Netflix.

"When did you come out here?" Sting asked, settling down on the couch next to Gray but not touching. "What's going on? You okay?"

"Mm. Threeish?" Gray yawned and rubbed his face. "Just too warm. I don't wanna touch people sometimes, but I feel bad going to the other bedroom." He smiled sleepily up at Sting, but didn't move closer. "You can go back to bed."

The next morning at breakfast Sting stole Gray's phone, typed in a few words, then handed it back. "They make bigger beds," he said, tapping the website he'd found. Gray frowned, scrolled up and down, made a happy sound, then started typing.

"Thanks, love," he said, pulling Sting and kissing him softly. Sting felt something flutter in his chest. "It'll be here next week."

Sting wasn't sure when the assumed-to-be purely sexual relationship between the four of them turned into something else.

The bed had probably been a good sign, one that he had conveniently missed by appreciating how good it felt being fucked into it. He figured he could be forgiven for overlooking that. The clothes and toiletries should have been a good giveaway, but he'd just looked at it as convenience and nothing more.

Maybe it was when they stopped calling them "double dates" and just called them "dates". They would order for each other at the restaurant and rest feet against each other under the table, then all hold hands in the darkness of the movie theatre.

It could have been the time Sting called out, "bye babe, love you," as he was leaving for work, and three voices had replied with, "love you, too". Sting hadn't even realized what had happened until he'd gotten on the bus, and his face had turned an interesting shade of pink.

At any rate, something had changed, and now Sting was faced with whether or not he was ready to admit it out loud.

"Sting, is that you?" Sting turned in the Starbucks lineup to see one of his old school friends, Rufus, waving at him. Natsu peeked over Sting's shoulder curiously, hand still resting on the small of Sting's back.

"Hey man, how's it going?" Sting let Rufus pull him into a hug, then leaned back and inspected his friend. "Shit, your hair got long." Rufus laughed, pushing it over his shoulder. "How've you been?" School had ended six months ago, and they hadn't seen each other since.

"Good, working part time, nothing too exciting." Rufus nodded to Natsu and reached out his hand. "I'm Rufus, I went to school with Sting."

"Oh, sorry," Sting said quickly, stepping closer to Natsu. "This is Natsu, my..." he trailed off, suddenly hit by the fact that he didn't know what to say. Friend? That wasn't right. And neither was 'friend with benefits' because a) that wouldn't be any of Rufus' business anyway and b) that didn't describe what they had. There was something in his mind that insisted that he knew exactly what to say, but he couldn—

"Boyfriend," Natsu said, looking at Sting with a raised eyebrow that indicated that it was a question, and he was, in fact, allowed to disagree. A huge sense of relief flooded through Sting and he nodded, grabbing Natsu's hand and squeezing.

"Oh!" Rufus looked somewhat surprised, but smiled regardless. "I'd assumed you were still with Rogue, my mistake."

"I am," Sting said quickly, not willing to pretend that his relationship with Rogue didn't exist. He could sense the confusion radiating from Rufus and he sighed. "I'm, uh, with both of them."

"And Gray," Natsu supplied helpfully. Sting could tell that Rufus was trying to keep his face neutral, but he wasn't very successful.

"It's not a... traditional relationship," Sting admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Well, if you're happy," Rufus said. He still looked a bit confused, but his smile was authentic when he grabbed his coffee and waved goodbye.

That night at supper, Sting looked around the table. Gray had made malai kofta at Natsu's request, which Natsu was busy praising as, "Better than Nanni's but don't tell her or she'll disown me."

"She'd disown you anyway for dating a guy," Rogue replied with his mouth full. His grandparents were also stubbornly traditional, but his parents were much more understanding and had easily accepted Sting into their lives.

"Hn, imagine her face if she found out I was dating three guys," Natsu added, shoveling more rice onto his place. Gray snorted.

Sting blinked a few times, holding his fork in midair. "Are... we?" he asked slowly, looking around at the three of them. Gray frowned at him. "Dating, I mean. It's just, we never really, um... we didn't talk about it? And the sex, yeah, that's, but— then the bed, okay, and the, um, the dates? I guess? But like we didn't ever have, y'know, a t-talk?" By the time he'd finished talking his hand was shaking, and he could feel the heat in his face.

"I guess we didn't," Gray said slowly, reaching over and resting his hand on Sting's. "Natsu and I just kind of... assumed, I guess. I'm sorry." Sting didn't look up, but he turned his hand so that Gray could hold it properly.

Sting glanced up at Rogue, who was giving him a soft look from the other side of the table. "Did you..." Rogue sighed.

"It's comfortable," he said, reaching his foot under the table to brush against Sting's leg. "I like it. I didn't know if we needed to call it something or not. You seem happy."

"I... I am," Sting said quietly. All of the little pieces were coming together now, forming a bigger picture of their relationship. The four of them. Together. "I just..."

"We could do it all official," Natsu teased, poking Sting in the side. "Sting, you wanna be our boyfriend?" Sting turned and gave him a look, and Natsu tilted his head back, laughing. "C'mon, I'm serious. Wanna date?"

"You know I do, asshole," Sting muttered, punching Natsu in the shoulder. He frowned a bit, rubbing his thumb over Gray's fingers. Natsu sighed, leaning over and kissing Sting's cheek.

"We ran into a friend of Sting's from college today," Natsu explained. Both Gray and Rogue nodded in understanding. Rogue reached across the table and took Sting's hand from Gray.

"Do we need... rules?" Gray asked hesitantly. He moved his hand down to Sting's thigh, gently stopping the nervous bouncing. "It's okay, love, take a breath."

Sting's heart skipped a little at the endearment and he stopped moving his leg, exhaling. "Not, I don't... I mean, it's just us, right?" He looked around at them. "It's not like, open? For other—"

"No," replied the other three in unison.

"Just us," Natsu said, catching Sting's gaze. "It's not just sex. I mean, that's great, but I – we – care about you a lot."

Sting nodded. "I care about all of you too. I'm happy. I just... other people. I mean, how do you say, 'oh yeah, by the way, can I bring all three of my boyfriends to the work Christmas party'?" Natsu laughed.

"Christmas is six months away," he said gently, brushing his nose against Sting's cheek. Sting leaned his head onto Natsu's and hummed at the gentle feeling of Rogue's fingers rubbing his palm. "Plus, I don't even celebrate Christmas. Let's worry about that when we get there."

"I know," Sting said softly. "I just..." he trailed off, chewing on his lip. "I like this. I love you guys." He exhaled shakily – they'd all casually tossed a love you babe to each other in passing, but it had never been said in deep seriousness like this. "Other people, though..."

"Fuck 'em," Natsu said, grinning, and Gray smacked him on the back of the head. "What the hell was that for?"

"Don't brush it off," Gray said, frowning at Natsu. "Just because you don't care what other people think doesn't mean everyone's the same way."

Natsu grumbled but didn't argue, instead sitting back in his chair. It was quiet for a minute, then Rogue spoke up.

"We don't have to figure it all out right now," he said gently, squeezing Sting's hand. "But I'm inclined to agree with Natsu. People who love you will support you, other people…" he sighed. "If you don't want to tell your coworkers we can maintain our previous relationships as covers?"

Sting hesitated, enjoying the reassuring weight of Gray's hand on his thigh. Then he shook his head.

"Well, Rufus was confused, but he didn't take it… badly?" Sting looked over at Natsu. "I don't wanna have to lie. If I'm out with one of you, I don't want to have to say we're… just friends or something."

"Same," said Natsu. "Although family might be a different story."

"Why don't we save that for another day," Gray suggested, squeezing Sting's thigh. "I think Sting's overwhelmed as it is." Sting nodded, rubbing his face and yawning.

Natsu was about to go back to eating when he turned to Sting, frowning. "Is this why you haven't been sleeping well?" He asked. "You were worried about this?"

"No?" Sting said quickly, but he'd never been a convincing liar. Natsu's face dropped and he reached out pulling Sting into a hug.

"I'm sorry, baby." Natsu kissed Sting's head and squeezed him tightly. "We should've talked."

Sting could feel Gray's fingers on his back and Rogue still holding his hand, and was overwhelmed by a deep sense of rightness and belonging.

"C'mon, we're gonna make it up to you," Natsu said.

An hour later, curled up on the couch with his boyfriends, Sting wondered how he'd got so lucky. He was wrapped in Gray's arms, with Rogue leaning on him and Natsu lying across his lap, and the warmth surrounding him made everything feel right.

Sure, Gray was anal about the colour coding on the calendar, and Natsu forgot things in the microwave all the time, and Rogue got on Sting's case when he left his laundry inside out. They were chaotic and messy and loud and overwhelming, but they were his, and he was never letting them go.